Single Issue Hall of Fame: Captain America #259

Sure, this issue may come across as a bit of an After School Special, but sometimes you need a little warm & fuzzy preachiness in your early 80s funnybooks. While the cover may lead you to believe that this will simply be a throwdown between Cap and our man Otto, there's much, much more going on here. Cap has been asked by and old army buddy (he must have 10,000 of those) to track down his son, who has runaway to join a biker gang. OK - the fact that the bikers all look like they're audtioning for Easy Rider 2 is a bit funny, but it's tough to deny the power of Captain America's unrelenting earnestness. Added to all of this is a second storyling involving Doc Ock's desire to steal Cap's shield. It's amazing how much gets accomplished in a single issue. In the end, we learn that family is more important than gang membership. Sure it's a bit sappy, but it's an example of solid storytelling. Whenever I look back to stories that I've enjoyed reading over and over, I'm never surprised to see Dave Michelinie's name in the credits. Mike Zeck was always such a good fit for Cap - methinks a TPB of the stories put out by that creative team would look nice on my bookshelf.